PLATEElectroplating engineered for what people eat and drink.
Zinc, nickel, and tin electrodeposited onto stainless mixing bowls, brewery tanks, and conveyor components — built to survive caustic washdowns and FDA audits without flaking a single micron.
0.0002"
Min Mil Tolerance
XRF Verified
48 hr
Weekend Turnaround
Shutdown-ready
100%
FDA Documentation
Per batch
Six stages.
Nothing hidden.
Most platers won't show you their chemistry. We publish ours because precision isn't a trade secret — it's a standard.
Surface Preparation & Abrasive Blasting
The foundation is the substrate.
Every part enters the line stripped to bare metal. We use 80-grit aluminum oxide at 60 psi to achieve a surface profile of 1.5–2.5 mils Ra — rough enough for mechanical adhesion, smooth enough that the plate builds uniformly. Grease, oxide scale, and heat tint are gone before the part touches chemistry.
Alkaline Cleaning & Activation
Chemistry before chemistry.
Parts soak in a 10% sodium hydroxide bath at 160°F for 8 minutes, followed by a HCl acid dip at 20% concentration for 45 seconds. The activation etch opens the grain structure, giving ions a lattice to bond into. We rinse with deionized water at each stage — no tap water, no mineral contamination.
Electroplating Bath Immersion
Where ions become metal.
The part enters the plating bath as a cathode. Current density is set between 20–40 ASF depending on geometry. For food-contact zinc, we run a sulfate bath at pH 4.5–5.5, 75°F, with brightener additions controlled to ±0.5 ml/L. Nickel runs at pH 3.8–4.4, 140°F. Every bath has a dedicated rectifier — no shared current, no cross-contamination.
Post-Plate Passivation
Lock the barrier in.
Zinc parts receive a trivalent chromate passivation — not hexavalent, which is banned in food-contact applications. The conversion coating adds 0.1–0.3 μm of chromate film that extends corrosion resistance from 96 to 500+ hours in neutral salt spray. Nickel parts receive a 0.2% phosphoric acid brightening rinse, not a passivation — the nickel is already the barrier.
XRF Thickness Testing
Numbers, not promises.
Every part gets a minimum of five XRF readings per surface zone. We use a Fischer XDV-SDD with a 1 mm collimator spot, calibrated daily against NIST-traceable standards. Results are logged in real time to a batch record. If any reading falls outside ±10% of spec, the part goes back. No exceptions, no "close enough."
Compliance Documentation
The paper trail survives the audit.
Every batch ships with a Certificate of Compliance listing substrate alloy, plating type, nominal thickness, XRF readings by zone, bath chemistry log, passivation type, and applicable standards. The document is signed, stamped, and stored for seven years. Your QA manager can hand it to an FDA auditor without opening a file drawer.
Numbers,
not promises.
The XRF report below is from an actual production batch — a 304 stainless mixing bowl plated with electroless nickel for a commercial bakery in Portland, OR. Feb 12, 2026.
LIVE BATH PARAMETERS